30 January 2024

Does the spring rotation planner actually work for all dairy farm soil types?

Many dairy farmers with a large percentage of heavy soil types question the relevance of the spring rotation planner. Martina Gormley, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, writes on how different targets are required on farms with a heavier soil type.

The targets set out for spring grazing have been one-third grazed by March 1^st, one-third by March 17^th and the remaining one-third grazed by April 1^st.

When most farmers with a lot of heavy soil type hear these targets of course they think the spring rotation planner does not relate to their farm and rightly so. That is why there is two targets set by date.

Heavy soil type farms are between 10-14 days later. Which means the first one-third is grazed by March 14^th, the second one-third grazed by the end of March and the last one-third by April 14^th.

Table 1: Spring rotation planner for dry and heavy farms

Do these dates stack up with the Heavy Soils Programme farmers?

Looking at five years of data from the Heavy Soils Programme farms on average, these dates line up quite well. The main difference identified over a five-year period (2018-2022) is that it is on average April 20^th when the second rotation starts, not April 15^th.

Table 1 above is a guide and example; the percentages are not 100% exact. For example, in February 2023, many farmers grazed a higher percentage than table 1 for fear of a poor March. Also many heavier farms had 20-30% grazed in February.

In summary, the spring rotation planner does work but its +two weeks later of a finish for farms with a large percentage of heavy soils and that’s ok. It is a fantastic achievement on average to have started grazing early March and finished by April 15-20^th.